Well my first "professional" job is complete and I have to say it was a very steep learning curve. I would much rather that my first pair of curtains, without adult supervision, would have been for myself but a customer wanted a pair of curtains very quickly so I attempted to step up
I nearly sobbed over the pattern matching - I think it probably took me most of the day - and that was after I'd felt the fear and cut the fabric anyway! Friends assured me that once I'd pattern matched the fabric the worst was over and it was plain sailing after that. They lied! Sewing the triple pleats was a nightmare and at one point I did wonder just how much unpicking the fabric could stand!
I swear to you my maths is good, my arithmetic is spot on but I miscalculated these pleats more than once. Not a single machine in my house (and we all know there are plenty) could sew through the fabric, lining, interlining and buckram. I did as best I could, panicked, thought of crying and then begged a friend to lend me her Janome 6600p machine. I slept easy for a night and then went away for a 24 hour endurance relay race.
The borrowed machine still wouldn't cope with it. Cue so much swearage, then I looked at hiring a machine. Finally I got the opportunity to hire/loan a machine from someone locally. A Janome 1600p has pride of place on my dining room table for the time being with one on order to be delivered at the end of July.
We all know that I wasn't going to get a curtain making business going without purchasing a new machine!
We all know that, that's the only reason I'm starting a curtain making business
Sadly 1 or 2 machines will be sold to assist the purchase of this machine which will leave me without a machine to do 1-step buttonholes! This is fine for curtain making but not quite so fine for my general garment (for myself) sewing. The 1600p does only straight stitch (but very beautifully and very fast!)
I'm very much hoping that my next set of curtains will be for myself but I've actually had lots of enquiries (and I still have no business cards!) so I'm not sure when I'll fit them in!
Nik